The Upper Canadien

Budweiser Canada was kind enough to send me one of their now infamous red lights two weeks ago, and after two weeks of solid use, I can report that it is a very, very cool piece of hockey fandom. It is also a brilliant marketing scheme, and it definitely impresses a group of guys over to watch the game. Other members of the household? That's debatable. But if you want to impress a group of friends easily, one of these does the trick handily. More info is available here, but I'll give you a quick rundown if you're new to the product.

The light comes in a tube-shaped package, packed in styrofoam, with easy to understand instructions and you can have it set up in a matter of minutes. The light connects easily to wifi, and comes with a handy app that runs smoothly on my iPhone (and, I gather, most mobile devices). It allows you to select all your favourite teams, and each time they score - voila, the light goes off.

A few questions I had going in, that you may have reading this review:

1) lag time - there is a lag after your team scores; however, it's marginal, and usually only 3-5 seconds. It's actually pretty impressive.

2) the element of surprise - you may have figured out by now that I have a regular ol' job, life and day-to-day activities. That's why I'm a blogger! What that leads to, inevitably, is the light being on and you forgetting. So if you have, say, a meeting at your house and there is a game on, or your partner is working late into the night, or you are asleep, the light can go off. This hasn't happened too often, but it has resulted in a few, well, let's call them incidents. However, if there were west coast road swings this year, it would likely happen a lot more often. Why does this happen, you ask? There's a simple dial switch on the side that turns it on and off - it's tough to tell unless you remember to switch it each way after each game. That said, this is also kind of fun, as it is a great way to scare the heck out of someone. I sort of see it as a bonus that most wouldn't even realize going into their first experience with the product.

So - the Bud Red Light. It's going to be intense tonight, because she's a Pens fan and I'm a Habs fan. The light will only help. It's mobile, with no cords, and can be attached just about anywhere with a set of screws. I gotta admit, I was skeptical going in, but this thing is pretty neat - and as I said, a brilliant marketing strategy by Budweiser. Well done, guys. This positive review is for you. Or something like that.

Comments

Other than the few games on other-the-air broadcast NBC, I watch all Red Wings games on GameCenter Live, which has approximately a 60-second delay when compared to television broadcasts. Would this light go off 55 seconds before I actually see the goal on GameCenter Live? That would be a dealbreaker for me when it comes to this product.

About The Upper Canadien

The Upper Canadien is your one stop shop for all things Montreal Canadiens. Since the summer of 2010, I've been providing Habs related news, notes, and most importantly, opinions. As a blogger, I don't believe it's my job to report the news, it's my privilege to comment on it. You may disagree with what I suggest. In fact, you most likely will. But that's the great part about blogging: it spurs opinion, comment and engages all involved. I've really enjoyed all the debate and commentary from readers thus far and I encourage everyone to respond with ideas on lineups, trades, logos, sweaters, mascots, whatever. The Upper Canadien is a conversation for all hockey fanatics.

I've come to Kukla's Korner with four years of campus radio and three years of sportswriting from my time at Mount Allison University on Canada's East coast. Not only do I not have any professional journalistic training, after five years in the corporate world, I've spent much of the past two years completing an MBA. Business by day, hockey by night, I'm a Canadiens fan through and through. I hope you enjoy reading as much as I do writing.